UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations on Thursday passed a resolution establishing an annual day to commemorate the 1995 genocide of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims by the Bosnian Serbs, a move vehemently opposed by Serbs who fear it will label them all as “genocidal” supporters. of mass murder.
The vote in the 193-member General Assembly was 84-19, with 68 nations abstaining, a reflection of concerns in many countries about the vote’s impact on reconciliation efforts in deeply divided Bosnia.
Supporters were hoping for 100 “yes” votes. Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, who voted against the resolution, told the assembly that the combined abstentions and “no” votes – 87 – were greater than the 84 votes in favor. It is also noteworthy that 22 countries missed the meeting and did not vote, some reportedly because of the dispute over the celebration.
The resolution designates July 11 as the “International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica”, to be observed annually from two months onwards.
The resolution, sponsored by Germany and Rwanda, does not name the Serbs as guilty, but that did not stop the intense lobbying campaign for a “no” vote by Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik and the populist president of neighboring Serbia, Aleksandar. Vucic. , who had a Serbian flag draped over his shoulders as he sat in the assembly chamber during the vote.
Vukic told UN members after the vote that everyone involved in the Srebrenica massacre had already been convicted and sentenced to prison and said the sole purpose of the resolution was to “place the moral and political blame on one side” – the people of Serbia and of the Republic. Srpska, the Bosnian Serb half of Bosnia.
“Those people who wanted to stigmatize the Serbian people did not succeed and will never succeed,” he said. “Nothing could have united the Serbian people better than what is happening here today.”
Russia’s Nebenzia called the resolution’s adoption “a Pyrrhic victory for its sponsors,” saying that if their aim “was to divide the General Assembly… then they have succeeded brilliantly.”
But the adoption of the resolution was welcomed by Zeljko Komsic, the Croatian member of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency, the families of Srebrenica victims, UN human rights chief Volker Türk, and many Western and Muslim nations.
The United States was one of more than 40 co-sponsors of the resolution, and the U.S. Mission to the United Nations welcomed its adoption in a tweet, saying “we honor the victims and commit to a more peaceful and stable world.”
“Actually, we expected more countries to be in favor, but we are satisfied,” Sehida Abdurahmanovic, who lost several family members during the genocide, told the AP. “Those who abstained and voted against – let’s put them on a pillar of shame we are building at the memorial center.”
On July 11, 1995, Bosnian Serbs invaded a UN-protected secure area in Srebrenica. They separated at least 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys from their wives, mothers and sisters and massacred them. Those who tried to escape were chased through the forest and mountains surrounding the city.
The Srebrenica murders were a bloody climax to Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, which occurred after the breakup of what was then Yugoslavia unleashed nationalist passions and territorial ambitions that pitted the Bosnian Serbs against the country’s other two main ethnic populations, the Croats and the Bosnian Muslims.
Both Serbia and the Bosnian Serbs have denied that genocide took place in Srebrenica, although this has been established by two UN tribunals.
Before the vote, Vucic urged UN members to vote “no,” calling the resolution “highly politicized.” He warned that he would open “Pandora’s Box” and said that it was not about reconciliation. He said this will only “open old wounds” and create “complete political destruction” in the region and at the UN. He also strongly attacked Germany for trying to teach “moral lessons” to the international community and Serbia.
The 2007 determination by the International Court of Justice, the UN’s highest court, that the acts committed in Srebrenica constituted genocide is included in the draft resolution. It was the first genocide in Europe since the Nazi Holocaust in World War II, which killed around 6 million Jews and people from other minorities.
Germany’s UN Ambassador Antje Leendertse presented the resolution, saying her country wants to build a multilateral system to prevent a repeat of Nazi Germany’s crimes and to honor the memory of the victims of Srebrenica and support survivors. The resolution “is not directed against anyone, not even against Serbia,” she said, adding that, at the very least, it is directed at the perpetrators of the genocide.
Leendertse noted that every year there is an official UN commemoration of the 1994 Rwandan genocide on April 7 – the day the Hutu-led government began killing members of the Tutsi minority and their supporters. The resolution aims to “bridge the gap” by creating a separate UN day to honor the victims of Srebrenica, she said.
Menachem Rosensaft, the son of Holocaust survivors and an adjunct professor at Cornell Law School, told the Associated Press on Wednesday that designating July 11 as the official day of remembrance for the Srebrenica genocide “is a moral and legal imperative.”
The murdered Bosnian Muslims deserve that their deaths and the way they were commemorated and Srebrenica was supposed to be a safe area, but it was abandoned by Dutch UN peacekeepers, leaving the Bosnians who sought shelter there “to be murdered under UN surveillance.” ”. Rosensaft said.
Richard Gowan, director of the UN International Crisis Group, called the timing of the vote “unfortunate given allegations that Israel is pursuing genocide in Gaza.”
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Associated Press writers Eldar Emric in Srebrenica and Jovana Gec and Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade, Serbia, contributed to this report.
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